The Magic of Christmas
by Unhobbity Hobbit
Summary: The prompt was Crack!fic: A witch turns Sam and Dean into reindeer.


The Magic of Christmas

The moment they worked out that they only had a week to find the witches cave, they stepped up their game, else the five girls it'd taken (one for each of its... toes or something) would be drained of their youth so the witch could go on living. That had been six days ago and now they were standing in the witch's cave (damn annoying; it was only there between midnight and one O'clock) and the five girls were in their separate cages (from little five-year-old Meggy to twelve-year-old Lily, it was a big story, five girls going missing a week before Christmas) but the witch was nowhere to be seen. That wasn't really a problem because if they could get the girls out safely, the witch would be dead by sunrise on Christmas morning, except that the witch can't have left the cave because that would just make it too easy.

Sure enough, as Sam was starting to work on the lock of the first cage, the witch made itself known. It didn't really go for a subtle approach, preferring the "run screaming at your enemies with your talons out" tactic, completely ignoring Dean when he shot it in the head. Of course, Sam had to give up his attempt on the cage lock, lest he get his throat ripped out.

The next ten minutes or so were spent fighting but it all went downhill when the witch managed to separate the boys from their weapons, even the girl's screams of 'it's behind you!' didn't help. That was how they found themselves floating a few inches off the ground and glowing. As Dean so astutely observed, that could not be good.

They woke up outside the solid rock wall where the cave had been, very cold from lying in the snow but otherwise unharmed. It was still dark as they stumbled, shivering and pretty wet, to the Impala waiting faithfully at the edge of the forest. They dragged themselves back to the motel with the heater on full blast and once they got there they dried themselves off, had warm showers and crawled into bed. So they'd screwed up, they still had one night to make it all better.

* * *

Before Dean even opened his eyes the next morning he knew something was wrong. Mostly because his brother was yelling, but also because his brother's yells sounded distinctly like snorts as well as the fact that his teeth felt incredibly weird. He was sure he didn't usually have the gaping gaps in his teeth he appeared to have now, not to mention how huge the teeth themselves were. He tried to feel his teeth with his tongue but it just didn't seem to do exactly what he wanted and Dean was used to having a pretty agile tongue (hey, it got lots of practice). When Dean opened his eyes and found that everything was in black and white, then he really _knew_ something was wrong.

He tried to get up and out of bed but his body didn't seem to bend that way anymore, so he awkwardly shuffled his way out from under the bedclothes. He stood up once out of bed but quickly overbalanced and fell back onto all fours because that was how his body worked now. Dear God, he had _hooves_. Just what the hell was he? One look at Sam gave him a good idea. Reindeer? That damn witch, probably thought it was so funny turning them into reindeer on Christmas Eve. Well, ha frickin' ha, they'd soon see who had the last laugh.

Dean snorted, which was reindeer for _this sucks out loud._ Then he got a good look at what Sam was doing and just laughed. Yeah, it sucked to be reindeer, but watching the reindeer that was your brother chasing himself in circles trying to get his boxers off was just too funny. Sam snorted at him.

_Laugh all you want, you look just as ridiculous._ Dean looked back himself and it was true, his boxers really didn't suit him in deer form.

_Stop spinning and I'll get them off you._ Sam stopped and stood still while Dean slipped an antler under the waistband and pulled them down to the floor so Sam could step out of them. It took a few shakes to get them off Dean's antler but after that it was fine. Sam then did the same for Dean, but was careful to remove his antler so the boxers were left on the floor. He didn't want to touch Dean's underwear any more than he had to. It was lucky the motel heaters were working on overtime because trying to get out of anything more than just their underwear would have been a whole lot harder.

The next problem was getting out of their room because the doors just weren't made to be used by deer and Dean wasn't sure if it was possible for a deer to use a human toilet. Luckily for them, the door only needed a key from the outside, from the inside it was just a handle to push down at the same time at you turned the door knob, which was slightly problematic but they could work around it. It beat the prospect of trying to fit a key into the lock with their new reindeer teeth. The chain? Well, they'd just have to break that.

They started off trying to chew through the chain but didn't get anywhere with that, it just made their jaws ache. Sam got the bright idea of trying to manoeuvre the chain with his antler but didn't have nearly enough control for it and ended up just getting frustrated. Before Sam could start kicking the door down (which was an option, but not one that would get them into the good graces of the owners) Dean pushed him out of the way, hooked his antler through the chain and pulled as hard as he could. The chain finally gave in and broke, leaving them with just the two remaining problems (not including Dean's mild antler-ache).

After a few arguments, a bit of shoving and a lot of poking each other with antlers, it was decided that Sam would take the lock and Dean the door knob because the lock was on the bottom and Sam was still slightly bigger, much to Dean's chagrin. So it was that Dean found himself clambering awkwardly over Sam and reaching between Sam's antlers to get his mouth around the door knob, it tasted of metal and hands, in other words, not very nice.

_You ready Sam? _The good thing about communicating in snorts was that you were still pretty understandable even with a door knob in your mouth. Sam nodded, which almost resulted in Dean losing an eye and Dean would have said something were he not so sure that no deer neck was ever made to stretch like this. So he counted to three. On the count of three they both twisted their heads to open the door and then shuffled very slowly and awkwardly back. Soon as they got the door open far enough that they could let go (not soon enough, according to Dean as he tried to spit the taste out of his mouth). Dean quickly dismounted from his brother because, yes, his position looked embarrassingly like he had mounted Sam and no, it wasn't ever going to be mentioned ever again.

_Do we need anything? Because we won't be able to get back in once we close the door._ Dean gave the room a once over. A gun would be pretty useful, or a knife but even if they could devise a way of carrying weapons around with them, actually using the weapons would be a completely different matter. Sam got the bright idea of leaving some paperclips outside the door so they could pick the lock when they were human again, sometimes Sam's big brain was useful.

They left the room and shut the door and Dean promptly disappeared around the back of the building. _Hey, where you going? _Sam called, well, snorted after him.

_I have to pee, you can watch if you really want,_ Sam decided that seeing his brother the reindeer pee wasn't one of those things he ever really wanted to do. Heck, until this morning, he hadn't even thought it was something he'd ever have to consider. Which was possibly a grave oversight considering what they did.

_What do we do now?_ Sam asked once Dean returned.

_We can't just give up on this case. Anyway, we'll have to kill the witch to change back so, we've still got to get to the witch's cave._

_Looking like this? We'll have to go through the town, Dean._

_Don't worry, everyone will be inside enjoying Christmas Eve, no one will notice us.  
_

* * *

"Look, Mommy! Daddy! There's a reindeer!" and before they knew what hit them, there were children pouring from every door and every garden to come and pet the pretty reindeer. Well, not quite like that, but near enough. They all seemed to make a bee-line for Sam as well, which didn't bother Dean in the slightest, but it was interesting to note that puppy dog-eyes worked just as well when in a reindeer's face.

Dean was able to stand back and watch the children swarm around Sam. Perhaps he just looked more fluffy or something. The parents were standing in their doorways or hovering near, trying to tell their children to leave the nice reindeer alone because they might be trying to get back to Santa. But what child will pass up the chance to get to know Santa's reindeer?

Dean scraped the snow away from someone's front lawn with his hoof and sniffed the grass. It smelt surprisingly good, considering that it was grass. Dean took a bite because that was obviously the next step and he could really get used to having his food growing out of the ground and on every corner. Then there was an altogether different smell, one that was almost heavenly. Dean could feel the saliva forming as he sniffed around for the source of the wonderful smell and followed it to an eight-year-old girl. Wait. Make that an eight-year-old girl with a bagful of oats. Dean took a moment to wonder at the fact that he apparently loved oats a disturbing amount but quickly forgot that because the girl was holding out a handful of them. They were quickly devoured and Dean could also get used to people going out of their way to feed him, for free!

Sam laughed upon seeing Dean's new best friend. He had to admit that those oats did smell good. He filed away the knowledge that reindeer have a really good sense of smell because that was what Sam did with knowledge, useless or not. Then he was distracted when a small boy tried to hang himself on one of Sam's antlers. Sam tried to back out of the situation but nope! There were children there too. These parents were lucky that he wasn't an actual wild reindeer because these kids were even making Sam a little skittish.

When some kids tried to climb on his back, that was the last straw for Sam and for some of the parents too. They finally overcame their wariness of Sam and physically pulled their children away from him. Except the boy that was swinging from his antler, annoyingly. Sam tried to hint at the boy to get off by dragging him along the floor, apparently the boy was pretty dense so Sam lifted him up, but that just encouraged him. It was then that Sam noticed Dean taking some time from the oats to laugh at him. Great, just great.

At last, a somewhat rotund woman burst out of her house screaming something about her poor little Jonny and dirty animals. Sam was all too happy to hand poor little Jonny over but had to quickly back off when she started beating him with a wooden spoon, which smelt like she was making something really tasty but really, who in their right mind beats a possibly wild reindeer? People are stupid.

Sam tensed upon hearing, albeit faintly, the sound of an oncoming vehicle. He cocked his ears towards the sound and listened hard, it sounded like some kind of van. He noticed a woman watching them from her front window, looking very worried and talking into a phone. She, too, heard the vanand looked relieved when she did. It suddenly clicked into place; she'd called animal control. Sam snorted to get Dean's attention and then reared, releasing a smell (because apparently that's what reindeer did), then turned and ran. He knew Dean had got his smell-message of _get the hell out of here_ when he heard another set of hoof-beats behind him and oat-girl's disappointed whine.

_A freakin' smell? You used smell to tell me to run? s_norted Dean from behind him.

_It seemed perfectly natural at the time,_ and Sam would have shrugged were he not running hell for leather for the nearest forest.

_Jesus, you're even geeky as a reindeer._

They both made it into the forest on the edge of town pretty easily, due to their being able to leap hedges unlike the van that half-heartedly followed them (it was nearly Christmas, after all, having two reindeer on the loose was kind of fitting. Plus, tranquing them in plain sight could possibly lead to a few traumatised kids). Sam and Dean went further into the forest, just in case any of the townspeople decided to take up hunting from their backyards. From here it looked like the rest of the day was going to be spent waiting for midnight to come and most of that time would be spent waiting outside a blank wall of rock for it to open into a cave seeing as it got dark at about four and other than that, they didn't have much else to tell them what time it was.

The only real difference from a usual hunt was that they were a different species. Granted, that was quite a large difference, which could cause more than a few problems, but they'd manage it somehow, if there was one thing their life had taught them, it was how to survive in unfavourable conditions.

Dean, bored of walking, swung round and blocked Sam's way, facing him head on. Sam tried to go around but Dean just moved into his way again. Sam snorted in frustration. Dean lowered his head in reply, his antlers looking quite fearsome when aimed straight at Sam in this manner. Sam snorted again.

_Oh come on, Dean! You want to rut?_

_Yeah, I want to rut! We've got these awesome antlers and you don't want to use them?_

_Dean, we've got better things to be doing._

_Like what? The cave won't be open until midnight and just one rut won't take long, think of it as training!_

_We'll draw attention to ourselves._

_We're in the middle of nowhere. Come on, Sammy! You don't even want to try rutting, rather than just metaphorically butting heads?_

_Metaphorically?_

_We're communicating in snorts and you pick me saying 'metaphorically' as the weird thing? _Sam rolled his eyes, as much as it was possible for reindeer eyes to roll, and lowered his head. Dean laughed a snorty laugh and backed up a few steps. _Ready there, little brother?_

_Bring it on._

Dean brought it on, gathering as much speed as he could over the short space and colliding with Sam. The clack of their antlers was, as Sam had feared, pretty loud but Dean had also been right in noting that they were in the middle of nowhere. Sam found himself pushed back a step and then another and he could just feel Dean's triumphant smirk.

Sam readjusted his position and pushed back hard. Dean was taken by surprise and forced to take a step back but from there, no one looked to be moving any time soon. Dean shook his head a little and their antlers slid together, then locked together even more solidly with a small click. There they were stuck, neither of them willing to give an inch.

Until Dean got an idea, and before Sam could even work out that something was going through his brother's head, never mind what it was, Dean was reversing. Dean went back so fast that Sam wasn't able to keep up and stumbled over his hooves, only just saving himself from faceplanting into the cold ground. He looked up at Dean, who was obviously laughing at him in a reindeer kind of way. With one of his loudest snorts yet, Sam was charging Dean down and suddenly this was serious. This was now full on sparring, no holding back and certainly no giving in. This was why it was another half an hour before they finally backed off each other, breathing heavily.

_Are we done rutting now?_ asked Sam.

_Sammy, you say that like you didn't enjoy it! You were totally into it, man,_

_Should you even be calling me 'man'? Because I'm clearly not one right now,_

_You never have been a man, Sammy, but that's never stopped me before,_

_It's Sam._

_Aww, did I hurt little Sammy's feelings?_

_Shut up._

_Sure thing, man... or should that be stag? _Sam just turned around and walked off because he couldn't think of anything better in reply to Dean. Dean laughed, God knew who won the rutting, but he had totally won at annoying. He trotted to catch up. _Do you know what's cool?_

_No Dean, what's cool?_

_I can practically see behind me without moving my head._

_It's because your eyes are on the side of your head, _snorted Sam, sounding mildly bored with his uneducated brother, well, educated, just not in traditional topics. _Depth perception is awful, though, so don't throw any knives. _ Dean tried to imagine being an ace knife-throwing reindeer. He didn't get very far because he smelt some lichen and it smelt good. Dean, not being one to ignore his body when it told him something was good, wandered off to go try some. _Guess I should be glad you're eating greens._

_Sneer all you want, Sam, this stuff is tasty. Try some._

_No thanks, Dean._

_Look man, deer or not, you gotta keep up your strength, you haven't eaten a thing today._

_Yeah, well, I think I'll pass on licking trees. _Dean tried to sigh but it came out sounding pretty similar to his snorts.

_You're such a prissy bastard, Sam. Come on. _Dean started walking off, expecting Sam to follow and he did, though mostly to find out what his brother was up to.

_Where are you going? Dean? Are you going back to town?_

_I'm just trying to find you something that you'll actually eat. _Sam really did try to dissuade Dean from wandering back into town but Dean was pretty set on it. Knowing him, he was probably just bored.

* * *

So, half an hour later they found themselves walking down the main street of the town looking for an open store. They'd decided smashing their way into a store wasn't the best way of avoiding attention. At last they came across a small, locally-run store that was open for any last-minute, panicking Christmas shoppers. That would do nicely.

Dean opened the door (ugh, that handle tasted worse than the motel one) and carefully manoeuvred his antlers through the doorway and down the aisles without knocking anything off. Sam followed.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" asked the woman at the register. She gasped when Dean came into view, perusing the shelves. She was just reaching for the phone when Dean pulled a bag off a shelf and pushed it along the floor to the till. The woman was frozen in amazement and pulled her hand back from the phone when Dean lifted the bag of oats and put it on the counter.

_Dean, what are you doing?_ Dean ignored Sam and just looked up at the woman. Sure, he didn't have the puppy dog-eyes perfected, but he was still cute and fluffy wasn't he? That was bound to get him something.

"You want some oats?" Dean just carried on looking at her, she was pretty hot, not quite his type but, whatever, "Where's your owner?" Dean snorted.

_Oh baby, I'm wild!_

_Jesus, Dean._ Sam was still staying back in the aisle. The woman reached tentatively towards Dean and he let her pat his nose a few times before he nudged her hand in the direction of the oats. She laughed.

"Hungry, are you?" Dean kept looking at her, she was bound to break soon. Sure enough, she opened the till and paid however much the oats were before breaking open the bag. The smell was delicious. The woman came around the front of the counter and fed Dean a handful while carefully stroking him with the other hand. Dean didn't really care what she did with her other hand as long as she kept feeding him. Except, except when she did that. "You like that, don't you?"

_Oh yeah, that feels goood. _There weren't even any oats left, he was just licking her bare hand but she'd hit a particularly sensitive spot just behind his ear and was scratching in just the right way.

_Dean, what are you doing? Get the oats and come on! _Sam stamped a hoof in frustration, getting the woman's attention.

"Aww, are you jealous?" Dean laughed.

_Yeah, jealous, Sammy?_ The woman held out a handful of oats to Sam. He could smell them and they did smell pretty good, better than any lichen anyway. He came cautiously closer then stopped.

_You know, the way you're baring your neck to her, she could easily be a vampire._

_A vampire that works in a store on Christmas Eve and eats deer. Right. You do realise vampires are extinct, don't you?_

_You sure about that?_

_Yes I'm sure. Anyway, we'd probably be getting some supernatural vibe off her if she was, being animals and all so get your ass over here and eat! _Sam came closer.

"Come on, don't be shy!" Sam started eating, suddenly realising how hungry he was. Dean nudged the woman again because she'd stopped scratching behind his ear, she laughed. "I can't scratch and feed you, make your mind up!" Dean thought about it for a bit, taking a long time over his deliberation because she'd started scratching again but then moved his head and snuffled into her hand, it still smelt of oats, but now smelt a bit like him too.

Eventually the woman knelt down because her back was starting to ache and Dean swung around alongside her and pushed up against her because animals can get away with a hell of a lot more body contact than strange men. Sam, of course, stayed where he was.

_You do realise you're different species, don't you?_ Dean looked up at Sam and tried to smirk, but a reindeer's face isn't really made for that kind of movement.

_Only in body,_

_Yeah, well, unfortunately for you, that's what matters, isn't it? _To say that Dean didn't care could possibly be called an understatement. The woman was hot, feeding him and paying for it, and that was good enough for him.

It took an hour to get through the whole bag, mostly because Dean was incredibly demanding and required petting as much as feeding. Luckily for them, the people of the town seemed to have planned their Christmases pretty well and so no one came in for any last-minute buys. Sam leapt up and put his front hooves on the counter to look at the clock. It was only two O'clock, they still had ten hours to kill. Oh well, they were used to waiting around doing nothing. Though they never exactly enjoyed it. The woman gave them a sugar cube each as a parting gift, one Dean licked her for, to show his gratitude. She just laughed and ushered them out of the door onto the empty street.

_Now what?_ snorted Sam. Dean tossed his head, which was the closest to shrugging he could get.

_I don't know, Sam. Snow angels?  
_

* * *

They'd tried snow angels (ten hours to kill, _ten hours_) but all either of them had really managed was a snow hole. The best thing was that their fur was really good at keeping the cold out, so the usual feeling of being permeated with the cold after lying on snow just wasn't there. They had to make themselves scarce when a small child giggled at Sam shaking the snow off him after a failed attempt at snow angeling. Why wasn't anyone staying inside their warm homes? Freaks.

The day crawled by incredibly slowly, filled mostly with Sam and Dean testing out their new bodies and what they could do. This basically involved lots of races and challenges. There wasn't much difference between them, they couldn't work out who finished the races first because they were too intent on getting there and they hadn't a hope in hell of measuring who jumped the highest, but they tried anyway. They made sure not to wear themselves out, that's not what they wanted, they were really just wasting time.

They still reached the rock wall in plenty of time, though they didn't know that because it was a cloudy night and they couldn't even use the moon to get an inkling of the time. So they waited and they waited, both of them standing stock still and really appreciating their improved night vision because this would've sucked (even more) if they were human and without a flashlight.

Dean was just about asleep on his feet when the first rumbles of rock disturbed him. He and Sam watched as the solid wall in front of them deconstructed itself, working from the centre outwards, to leave a deep and dark cave. They crept into it. Now they were off the snow their hooves were alarmingly loud on the cave floor, they just had to hope the witch was deaf or really inattentive. No such luck.

It was waiting for them as they turned the corner of the cave, a black shadow against the glow of the fire that burnt beneath the cauldron. Yeah, cauldron, this witch was the biggest cliché you've ever seen. A pretty dangerous cliché all the same. It ran at them, talons outstretched, screaming, the full works but this time Dean's weapon (the weapon the witch had given him – irony at its best) was far more effective. He charged the witch down and with the aid of his antlers, managed to toss it clear across the room.

They trotted over to the cages and the girls got the idea and moved away from the cage doors so Sam and Dean could start kicking the doors in. Not the ideal way of opening cages, but the only one they had, luckily the cages had been built to withstand young girls, not full-grown reindeer. Sam got his chosen cage open and little eight-year-old Krissy rushed out, grabbing onto Sam's front legs and almost toppling him. Sam carefully pried her off him with his antlers, trying to look as least scary as possible, but between a witch and a reindeer, the reindeer was always going to win, so he needn't really have bothered. This fact was good for Dean because he was looking quite fearsome as he ushered Krissy's twin sister Krystal towards Sam (Krissy and Krystal? Their parents must have been on something when they came up with that).

Dean moved on to the next cage, he recognised the girl in it as being nine-year-old Cate. He didn't get very far before the witch, having recovered, began its counter-attack. It aimed for Sam, as he was the one with the girls and Sam faced it head on but arms reach further than antlers and Sam ended up with some pretty nasty scratches. So, it was Dean to the rescue, or more accurately, Dean to be the distraction because the witch had to let go of Sam before it could throw Dean into the wall. Dean hit the wall hard and it was never a nice experience but something made Dean think that, perhaps, a reindeer's body wasn't quite as well equipped to deal with it as a human's.

While Dean was pulling himself up onto shaky legs, Sam took his turn at tossing the witch around. He shoved it straight into the cauldron and knocked it over, which wasn't usually the brightest of ideas (not that Sam had meant to anyway) but it seemed to be the right thing to do. The witch screamed when it was showered with whatever had been bubbling in the cauldron and didn't stop. Sam cautiously turned away and started on the next cage along, the one that Dean had already battered and the hinges finally gave out. Cate ran immediately for the other two girls and they had the sense to make themselves scarce, holding their hands over their ears to keep out the noise. Sam envied them that, the best he could do was to flatten his ears.

Sam started kicking the fourth cage in as Dean weaved his way over.

_Dude, you all right?_

_Reindeer and walls do not mix, _was all that Dean said. He watched Sam break open the fourth cage, freeing twelve-year-old Lily, before he started on the final cage, which contained little Meggy. Lily stayed in her cage and reached her hand out to Meggy to offer what comfort she could, the little girl was very distressed by all the clanging of breaking cages and the constant wail that the witch had going.

Once he'd broken open the final cage, Dean left Sam to deal with the children as he went over to sort out the witch because that scream was doing his head in.. He silenced it with one swift kick to the head, perhaps that concoction had softened it or something. Whatever had happened the witch was now out cold.

_Dean, let's go,_ said Sam, the five girls already waiting outside the cave.

_You go ahead with them, I'll wait here in case it wakes up,_

_Dean, if you're still in here when the cave closes and that witch dies, you'll be stuck here,_

_How stupid do you think I am, Sammy? I'll get out in time. If it gets out, though, its got until sunrise and it could come after us. Look, it's easier this way,_

_I'll stay,_

_What? No!_

_You're injured, _said Sam, indicating to the hoof that Dean seemed reluctant to put on the floor. Dean stubbornly put his foot down, both literally and figuratively.

_The kids like you, you're going with them._ Sam hesitated a moment longer before going to the children waiting out in the cold. It was important that they got home as soon as possible because of the cold. It wouldn't really have been a problem were it just Sam and Dean (especially in their new reindeer forms) but it being just Sam (and he was just slightly reluctant to leave Dean behind because what if the witch woke up?) and five girls, who aren't the fastest of walkers on a cold winter night, it could take anywhere up to four hours to get back to town.

"What about the other one? The reindeer that saved me?" asked Meggy when Sam urged them to start walking without Dean. Sam just nosed the top of her head because he couldn't think of any other way to reassure her.

They walked and walked and the girls got colder and colder because they only had three coats between the five of them. All of them but Lily were practically crying with the cold after an hour of walking and Krystal finally sat down and refused to go any further. Sam hauled her to her feet because sitting in the snow wasn't going to do her any good and then quickly scouted out a sheltered place for them to stop in.

He managed to find a nice spot under a bush where there was hardly any snow on the ground and managed to communicate this to the girls through a series of head gestures. He let them climb in first and then struggled in himself. He really hadn't noticed how thorny this bush was when he first stuck his head in it. Now he was trying to fit his whole body through he felt as though he was being thorned in on all sides. His antlers were getting stuck too, damn things. When he finally broke through into the small cove created by the plant, the girls were rolling around laughing, which was probably the only good thing about the situation.

Sam folded his legs under himself and sat down and the girls snuggled in all around him because he was by far the warmest thing around. He felt like a mother hen sitting there, checking every so often that none of the girls were getting too cold. Not to mention how much he was worrying about Dean. The cave was certainly shut by now and if he'd escaped, Dean was sure taking his sweet time over catching up.

As if he knew what his brother was thinking, Dean came into hearing range. It was only a very faint sound of hooves at first but then Dean came scraping around the bush they were sitting under, having followed their trail there.

_Sam? You in there?_ Sam almost died of relief.

_Yeah Dean, wanna join us?_

_Shove up so I can get in, then,_ Dean squeezed his way in the same way the rest of them had. _You managed to fit through there?_

_Woah, Dean, what happened to you? _Dean settled down and then glanced at the long gash on his rump and cocked his head as though he'd only just realised it was there, even though the blood had only just stopped running down his leg.

_Witch woke up,_ was all that he would say. The girls welcomed Dean's presence and, avoiding the blood as much as possible, sandwiched themselves between the two brothers. Meggy attached herself to Dean's neck and refused to let go. _How long are we planning on staying here?_

_I just wanted to give them rest. Why? You eager to get somewhere? It too cosy for you in here?_

_I was just thinking that it would be better to get them home before sunrise because, y'know, two naked men wandering around with five small girls... might not go down too well. _That was a good point.

_Let them have another hour, they were really cold and worn out. And whiny. _Dean agreed to that because he wanted to avoid cold, tired and whining young girls. The girls drifted off to sleep quickly because they were warm now, between the two reindeer as they were (and a bit smelly because reindeer were not made to smell nice, even if they are clean). Sam and Dean took turns at dozing, Sam making sure Dean's turns were longer because he looked pretty beat up but obviously not too much longer because Dean would never allow that.

After another hour the girls were mostly awake and getting restless, apparently they'd slept quite a lot in the cave and so weren't all that tired. Dean was the first out and it would have been funny to watch him struggling were his blood not matting the fur of his back leg and did he not whine slightly when he was forced to use his back leg in the wrong way. Meggy rushed out after him and practically stuck herself to him, her lower lip wobbling because she never liked to see other creatures in pain. Then came the rest of the girls and finally Sam, who they all felt free to laugh at as he fought his way out.

Meggy stuck so closely to Dean that eventually he had to stop and lie down and wait for Meggy to climb on because he was going to tread on her if she stayed down there. Meggy didn't think it was a good idea and nor did Sam, but the last time Dean listened to Sam's suggestions was when? Dean had to practically knock Meggy onto his back with an antler and she remained there as he stood up, mostly because the other four girls were tired of waiting. She quite liked it up there and she was light enough that Dean barely noticed her. Krystal kept glancing up at her, quite plainly wanting to be there herself but she wasn't quite presumptuous enough to bug their reindeer-saviours about it so only Krissy really noticed.

It was a long and boring walk back to the town. Once they got there, Sam and Dean knew exactly where to go because of all their previous researching but the girls were pretty amazed by their knowledge. By now the girls had accepted that they were probably magic reindeer and had even been discussing whether or not they'd been sent by Santa as what was probably the best Christmas present of all time. The conclusion was that yes, they most likely had been sent by Santa, even Lily agreed and she'd caught her parents filling her stocking last year.

The first girl they dropped off was Cate, her house being the nearest. They all waited at the road while Cate went up the path and rang the doorbell. The door was opened surprisingly quickly considering that it was the early hours of the morning but parents whose child has gone missing don't sleep all that much. The shriek that went up when the door opened could have easily woken the whole road. Once it was plain that Cate was safely in her mother's arms the rest of them moved on. Cate shouted after them and waved goodbye. The four remaining girls waved back and Sam and Dean tossed their heads because neither of them could think of a better way of saying goodbye.

Krissy and Krystal were next. Their parents were waiting halfway down the road for them because they knew Cate's parents quite well and had received a phone call from them, which had given them news that had probably been the second best Christmas present ever. They started running as soon as they saw the antlers and collapsed to their knees in front of Krissy and Krystal, hugging them tight and possibly never letting them go ever again. They were crying and saying all kinds of things that may or may not have made any sense but they were so hysterical it was hard to understand them. When the father got himself back under control he looked to the other two girls.

"Do you two want a ride home? It'll only take a minute for me to get the car out," Meggy wrapped her arms as far around Dean's neck as they would go and Lily moved closer to Sam.

"We'll walk, thank you," she said and they started walking again, Krissy and Krystal calling their goodbyes and thank yous after them. No one thought to stop the two reindeer with the two girls because they were just too happy to have their own children back and far too grateful to the reindeer to get them taken away somewhere. Everything seemed a little bit surreal to the parents. Two reindeer inexplicably turning up with their children, who had gone missing a week earlier and who the police had had absolutely no luck in finding whatsoever. It all seemed a bit, dare they say it, magical.

Lily was the next to be dropped off. She gave Sam and Dean hugs before turning up the garden path. She hadn't even reached the door before it opened and she was practically bowled over by a bundle of younger brother, shortly followed by a younger sister who Dean recognised to be the girl who'd given him his first taste of oats. He snorted loudly and tossed his head and oat-girl's mouth dropped open before breaking into a huge grin.

They left before the parents arrived on the scene because they weren't sure exactly how long it was to sunrise, but the sky was getting lighter and they wanted to be as near the motel and as far away from any small girls as possible when they changed back.

Dean took Meggy right up to her front door and knocked on it with an antler. As soon as she was plucked off his back by an incredibly astonished mother Dean backed off with a final lick to Meggy's hand because he was starting to feel tingly all over and they really had to get out of there.

Meggy broke out of her mother's hold and ran up to the spare bedroom so she could watch her reindeer friends go. To her amazement (and she would have thought it a trick of the just barely brightening light, did she not already know that they were magic reindeer) they both stopped on the other side of the street and stood stock still. Meggy watched as their antlers un-grew and disappeared back into their heads, their fur did the same and they didn't half look odd like that. Then their limbs were lengthening and becoming thicker and generally more human, in fact, their whole bodies were. Their hooves kind of flattened out and fingers stretched out of the front ones while the back ones became feet.

They stayed on their hands and knees for a few moments before they looked at each other and then ran like a bat out of hell (which was something her mom said she really shouldn't say but daddy said it all the time so it couldn't be that bad). Meggy learned a lot of things that Christmas: that witches and evil and things that hide in the dark are real and they really do like to eat little girls; that parents don't know everything and sometimes grownups are just so wrong it can make you cry with frustration; what it feels like to be completely helpless.

She also learned that out there, with all the dark things hiding in the shadows are good people who arrive at the last moment and save the day, just like they do in stories. She didn't mind knowing the bad things so much because with people like that out there, the world can't be all _that_ bad, can it?

FIN

Hope you enjoyed!


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